Appliance for controlling the making of water-gas.



H. N. CHENEY. APPLIANCE FOR CONTROLLING THE MAKING OF WATER GAS.

APPLICATION FILED 0014,1909.

Patented Dec. 13, 1910.

To all whom it my camera: I

Be it known that I, HERBERT N. CHENEY,

HERBERT Roxanna. or aosromjmassacnusnrrs;

APPLIANCE FOB- coir'rnontmc THE MAKING or ,WATER-GAS.

of Boston, in the county of. Suffolk State of-Massachusett-s, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in .A pliances forater-Gas, of

Controllin the -Making of which the ollowing is a. specification.

The process of making water gas consists of blowing air through a fire until a. pro er temperature has been reached, thenshutting off the air and incandescent fueljthe. steam forming 'with the carbon of the fuel, carbon monoxid, hy-. .drogen and a small percent-age of carbon.

dioxid of which the first two are combustible gases.

w This operation is repeated again and again, the only interruption being when ,it' becomes necessary to charge the fire with.

fresh fuel or to clean out ashes. 7 It is of course understood that during the blow,

or time when air is passed through the fire, no steamis passed. through and the products of combustion escape to the atmosphere, and

that durin the run or time. when steamis passed t rough, the fire,-no air is passed through and the productsresulting from the combination of steam and coal are sent into the gas mains after havingbeen enriched in another part ofthe. apparatus.

It has cometobe common practice to make one cycle of operations, that is one run and one blow, in, about eight minutes. Usually the blow is somewhat shorter than the run. Possible and common divisions are three minutes blow, five; minutes run, and four minutes blow, five minutes run. 1 Sometimes attempts are made tosplit minutes, but,usu ally not with satisfactory results owing to the added burden' of calculation thrown on. the gasmakers,so that running by an ordinary clock the duration of the runs and blows is practically limited to even minutes 'or at the finest to half minutes.

The econom of operation is influenced very greatly y the rate -of blowing" air through the fire, and it is obvious that if there is a certain quantity of air to be passed through the fire and a certain. desirable'rate.

at whichto pass it through, the division of 4 the quantity by the rate wouldseldom if ever fall on an even-number ofminutes' or half minutes.

' My invention contemplates division of the cycle into the proper proportions, andto provide an appl ance or means for dividing Application flled'Qctober 4, 190a. sen-elm. 520,970.

ssing' steam through the 1 is a plan'view partly amount.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec. 13, 1910,

the time of one cycle an' proportion re 1 qulred; To'do' this practica ly it IS essential that no additional burden of competition shall be thrown on the gasmaker. And it is also preferable that there shall be aready method of conveying to the gasmaker an indication of whenthe changeshall be'made from. the blow to the run in order to vary the'division of the cycle, such chan es being freqixlently advisable on account 0 changes in t bornein mind that a-fterthree or four cycles e quality of the fuel. It 'is also to be of the operation it becomes necessary to chargeth'e fire with fresh fuel. This means stopping both the steam and the air,'and

canses abreak in the operation which must,

be allowed for in the tlme mechanism used.

in the fuel, but it is sometimes desirable that after charging with fuel, the-first or -Not onlyis there actual'time lostin putting" coaling blow shall be a little longer than" the blow; of the ordinary cycle. This extrav blowing depends largely upon the quantity of moisture contained in the fuel,-often a very'variable quantity, so that in the time" mechanism employed 1t is desirable thatprovision'fshall be made wherebythe gasmaker D can easily control 'his'actio'ns to add a var1-.

able amount of'time to every'coaling blow. That is, variable in the sense that the amount of time to be added can be fixed, after the pro er examination of the conditions of thee. Of the accompanying drawings,-Figure I roken out of-an applia'nce'which I have inyented for use in carrying out inan improved manner some of the steps of the process of makingwater gas. Fig. 2 represents a section on. line .2-2 ofFig. 1. u i

- It is to be understood at the outset that'I do not limit myself to the particular appliance .01 means illustrated, -1ny invention i so far as it broadly concerns the appliance comprising two co acting time -'1nd1cat1ng elements of "which, in'the appliance illustrated, the. hand 2 0,'is one element. and the J dial 15 the other. One of these elements, the dialin the illustrated embodiment, is ad justable. relatively to the other so that the period of time to be indicated for the blow may qbe lengthened any predetermined Anyform of appliance of this nature, having any kind of motor capable of imparting uniform movement to a i pointer or a dial, one of said elements being A motor such as clock mechanism is indi-' oated conventionally at 12. Since any suitable type of motor might be employed, I have not attempted to illustrate the same in the drawings.

Suitably mounted within the casing is a fixed disk 13, around which a circular platform 14 is adapted to be moved. Mounted to rotate with said latform 1s a dial 15 having indications as ereina'fter described. A ring 16, secured to the latform 14 by screws 17, provides for hol mg the latform in place, the disk 13 being forme with a peripheral rib 1 8, the upper and lower sides of w ich are engaged respectivelyby the inner edges of the members 14 and 16. For convenience of descri tion I shall refer to the members 14, 15 an 16 as the dial.

- A motoractuated spindle 19. passes through the disk 13 and 1s provided with a hand or pointer 20' secured to its upper end. 'A lever 21 is freely mounted at its lnner end on said spindle 19 and carries a pawl which, by means of a suitable spring 23, s held in engagement with ratchet teeth 24 formed on the outer edge of the ring 16, the structure being such that movement of the lever 21 in the direction of the arrow 2: will rotate the dial in the direction of the arrow 3 A spring 25 which is shown as of a coiled Concentric wit the axis of the lever and,

pointer, is a segment 28 mounted on end posts 2 9 and provided witha series of holes 30 in either one of which a. stop pin 31 may be set. A suitable cha n or a cord 32 may be connected to the end of the lever to enable the lever to be actuated from a. more or less distant point.

The dial is provided with a fixed indicator (1 which may simply be a printed inter. Adjacent said indlcator are the wo Put Blow, On. The dial is also marked with time divisions which in this particular em bodiment consist of ei t minutes, each minute being sub-divi ed into quarters. The heavy radial lines indicate the minute divisions and the small radial lines the quarter minute divisions. In the space between the second and fourth minute divisions to the right of the indicator a, the

On An adjustable indicator 0 which may blow or the run by sim consist of a simple clip havin one end shar nod to a point, is employe in amanner ereinafter described. A second and similar adjustable indicator is shown at d.

In the use of an appliance such as illustrated, the gasmaker starts the blow when the hand or pointer reaches the indicator a. The hand is supposed to rotate once in substantially ei ht minutes. If the gasmaker is ready an does not wish to wait for the hand to reach the indication a, the lever can be actuated one or more times to shift the dial around until the indication a and the tip of the hand are in alinement. He then puts the blow on. It may be supposed, for instance, that the length of blow shall be exactly three minutes. In that case, the adjustable indicator or .clip pointer c is placed on the dial in about the position shown in Fig. 1. Then when the hand 20 has reached the indicator 0, the gasmaker shuts ofl the air and turns on the steam,

the indicator 0. When the indicator 0 has been placed in the proper position for the of the time, it is ordinary pro rtion' always possib e to ad time to either the advancing the dial in the direction 0 l the arrow 3 by.

means of the lever and pawl and ratchet.v

It is to be understood that the pointer or hand-moves in the direction of the arrow 2. I

on'and the hand 20 of course traveling ut not having yet reached the indicator or pointer c, the her pulls the chain or cord 32 and this actuates the lever until it strikes the stop 31, said stop being in a hole in the segment which will permit the lever to actuate the dial a distance of one minute of the time period indicated thereon. It will therefore be a minute longer before the hand 20 will be in alinement with the pointer c. If the coaling blow should be five minutes,

it is desired the stop 31'oan be removed and thenthe lever actuated unti-l it'strikes the lowerpost 29. Of course the stop can be placed any- .(which may be a coaling blow) in accordance with two indications of time mechanism, these two indications being illustrated. as the indicators a and 0, their relationship, however, to the moving hand 20 being changed to increase the length of time that must elapse between the starting and closing periods, whereby the ordinary unchanged/ operation of the time mechanism will serve for indicating the time relationship of succeeding blows and runs.

I claim: v

1. An appliance for use in controlling the relative time of the blow and run in making water gas, comprising two co-acting -timeindicating elements, one of which has an actuating motor, means for directly adjusting one elementrelatively to the other in dependently of said actuating motor, and a stop for positively determining the amount of adjustment to a predetermined degree.

2. An appliance for use incontrolling the relative time of the blow and run in making water as, comprising a movable dial having a xed indicator for the blow-starting period, a series of indications for the runstarting period, a pointer adjustable along said series, a motor actuated pointer, means for adjusting the dial, and a stop for-positively limiting the degree to Which the dial can be-adjusted.

3. An appliance for use in controlling the relative time of the blow and run in making water gas, comprising a movable dial having a fixed indicator for the blow-starting period, a series of indicationsfor the runstarting period, a pointer adjustable along said series, a motor-actuated pointer, the movable dial having ratchet teeth, and a lever and pawl for-shifting the dial.

4. An appliance for use in controlling the relative time of the blow and run in making water gas, comprising a movable dial having a fixed indicator for the blovkstarting' period, a series of indications for the runstarting period, a pointer adjustable along said series, a 1notor-actuated pointer, the movable dial having ratchet teeth, a lever and pawl for shifting the dial, and stops for said lever one of said stops being adjustable. v I

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

HERBERT N. CHENEY. Witnesses:

A. VVJ HARRISON, P. W. PEZZE'I'II. 

